The Organization for Security and Co-operations in Europe(OSCE) defines Human trafficking as this
Here are some statistics on modern day slavery from IJM (International Justice Mission) one of the largest non-profit anti human trafficking organizations, Hope For Justice and ILO, the International Labor Organization.
I believe America is helping the forced labor trafficking industry by purchasing imported goods, but its also hard for us to not purchase these goods because a lot of the items are things we need.
I am from Texas, the number 2 state in the US for human trafficking activity, but it is also the #1 state for cracking down on trafficking.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline receives more calls from Texas than any other state in the US. 15% of those calls are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where I live.
"the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs."
Here are some statistics on modern day slavery from IJM (International Justice Mission) one of the largest non-profit anti human trafficking organizations, Hope For Justice and ILO, the International Labor Organization.
- 40,000,000+ people in slavery
- at least 800,000 people will be trafficked this year
- 1 in 4 victims is a child (IJM has rescued children as young as 2months old and Hope For Justice as young as 1 yr)
- Slavery is a business that generates $150 Billion a year in forced labor alone
"Slavery is a business model. Criminals know how to thrive in markets where laws aren't enforced. The business of trafficking is so massive it turns $150 billion in profit every year."
- 24.9million are trapped in forced labor. Here is a breakdown of that 24.9 million. 16 million in the private sector such as domestic servitude, 4.9 million are trapped in sexual exploitation, and 4 million in forced labor imposed by state authorities
- Women and girls are disproportionately affected by forced labour, accounting for 99% of victims in the commercial sex industry, and 58% in other sectors
- The 4 most common ways people are trafficked are
- forced labor
- sexual exploitation
- domestic servitude
- organ harvesting
How and why does this happen? Those seeking to traffic people look for the vulnerable, like troubled teenagers-especially those in social services or homeless living in shelters, refugees, and immigrants with no ties to the community, and these people and more are almost always tricked and/or threatened. Everything about this business is fueled by money.
This is happens EVERYWHERE. In poor developing countries, in Europe and even the United States.
What about the US, what does trafficking look like here?
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) says...
- of the 25,000 runaways reported missing in 2017, 1 in 7 were likely victims of trafficking
- 88% were in the care of social services or foster care
The Walk Free Foundation says 1 in 800 in America may be a victim of trafficking
The Polaris Project is a great place for resources...
- California harbors 3 of the FBI’s 13 highest child sex trafficking areas in the nation: Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego.
- Between 14,500 and 17,500 people are trafficked into the U.S. each year.
- In 2016, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children estimated that 1 in 6 endangered runaways reported to them were likely sex trafficking victims.
"Everybody perhaps expects or is not surprised to learn that modern-day slavery happens in a country like North Korea or Afghanistan, in countries where there's conflict and human rights abuses, but it is pretty shocking to realize that modern-day slavery happens in very highly developed countries like the U.S.," says Fiona David, executive director of global research for Walk Free.
I believe America is helping the forced labor trafficking industry by purchasing imported goods, but its also hard for us to not purchase these goods because a lot of the items are things we need.
Walk Free defines forced labor as a person being unable to refuse or leave their work because of threats, violence, coercion, deception or abuse of power. Using 2016 data from the U.S. Department of Labor, the group found that the U.S. annually spends $144 billion importing products that may have been produced through forced labor. The goods range from electronics such as laptops, computers and mobile phones to garments, fish, cocoa and timber.US News says
The U.S. total of at-risk imports is more than three times the total for Japan ($47 billion) – the second-largest importer of such goods among the Group of 20 leading rich and developing nations – and nearly 10 times more than Canada's ($15 billion), according to the report.
The main source of at-risk imports into the U.S. is China, from where the U.S. imports electronics and clothing worth $122 billion annually, according to the report. Second on the list of sources of at-risk imports to the U.S. is Vietnam, with $11.2 billion worth of imports, followed by India with $3.8 billion. Other countries that export to the U.S. goods potentially produced by forced labor are Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, Argentina, Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Russia, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Peru, the group said.
I am from Texas, the number 2 state in the US for human trafficking activity, but it is also the #1 state for cracking down on trafficking.
The National Human Trafficking Hotline receives more calls from Texas than any other state in the US. 15% of those calls are from the Dallas-Fort Worth area, where I live.
- 792 trafficking cases in 2017.
- 551-Sexual Exploitation, 150-Forced Labor, 49-Sex and Labor, and 42 not specified
- 661 were female, 120 male
- 504 adults and 244 minors.
- 194 were foreign nationals and 172 were US citizens/LPR.
- Top 3 venues for hard labor: domestic work, restaurant/food service and construction
- Top 3 venues for sexual exploitation: illicit massage/spa business, hotels and residential areas
This is basically a word vomit of statistics on Human Trafficking. I wanted you to know this information before I told you how you can help fight it!! Here are some stories from Texas, the US and internationally that happened in the past 3 years.
